ne thing I like to do while travel writing is talk about some of the key points of interest, the eateries and the price and generally talk about the things on offer to all and anyone.

This time though, I want to talk about something that happened to me, which left me angry at myself but shocked at the same time. That story will soon come shortly.

For now though, just sit back, relax and read another dose of this blog.

The day started out as any other so far. I was up as usual between 4 and 6am (2 and 4am GMT) and out by 10am (8am GMT). Today I walked to the city centre with a different route and noticed a guitar banner but no shop. I noted the banner as I'd be visiting her soon.

I kept receiving updates from my friend telling me where she was - Pori is a three hour train journey from Helsinki, the same distance between Newport and London - so I knew roughly when I could stop window shopping and meet my friend, which is what I decided to do for an hour.

I was approached some time after by a woman who seemingly needed help from her 'story,' which in hindsight was an elaborate plan to try and scheme money out of people. These people appear to be homeless, however, they are not. She was trying to sell me rings for 2,000€ (£1,400) because she needed to pay for treatment for her mother. This was the story she gave to me anyway. I was willing to give her money for her metro (train), but I was not prepared to give her money for the rings. She kept telling me to hide them when the police walked past and acted dodgy. She then got up - while trying to extort more money out of me - then left smiling and speeding off up the street, 300€ (£290) richer.

Piia, then approaches me to which she's shocked by the story but then tells me there's a lot more of that happening now in Finland, so for anyone wanting to travel there, don't let that put you off. For me, it only happened once in the two times I've been there. While we got food, we talked about going to Estonia, but by the time we got to the hostel to drop her luggage off, the ferry had stopped boarding. We did, however, book a ferry for Tallinn, Estonia for the following day.

We went for a nice pizza dinner in the evening before going back to my room to watch surprise, surpise, Eurovision. I really don't have much to say about it this year apart from the guy who won, the show didn't do his voice any justice. He would've been better suited in a Jazz/Blues bar.

That's it for now, so just remember to stay vigilant and be familiar with your surroundings, not just on holiday but at home too.

Author: Daniel Murray

Daniel is one of our editors, he's the guy that walks around with a dictionary and makes all of our articles look pretty. He loves indian food and hates Coronation Street.